Twain's smoking diaries

(Guardian) Stored under lock and key since his death 100 years ago, the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography will be published later this year by the University of California Press. ... The highlight for literary buffs will be the revelation that a middle-aged slave, "Uncle Dan'l", was the inspiration for Jim in Huckleberry Finn. For others, it is likely to be his discourse on the joys of tobacco for seven-year-old boys. "A strapping girl of 15, in the customary sunbonnet and calico dress, asked me if I 'used tobacco' – meaning did I chew it. I said, no. It roused her scorn. Continued